The one we were hoping would get canonized, Dr. Tom Dooley, is said to be gay. Makes no difference to me whether someone is or not, and I don't care if priests are or not. If they are not celibate, and engage in consensual, healthy, sex with mature adults, that is not my business, any more than if my dentist is or isn't. I haven't been so much shocked at the latest things about the do-nothing bishops as realized that they are just not smart enough to make any decisions about anything at all, much less sex. If a priest is an abuser, I only care about whether he is absolutely removed from any contact from potential victims; probably jail like for other pedophiles. I do not care if they are removed from the priesthood after serving jail time; if there is a totally safe place, counting collection money, polishing pews, arranging the altar flowers, I don't care as long as they can not ever touch another child or helpless person.

And unless you grew up in this or a similar religion, you can't probably imagine how anti-adult, anti-heterosexual, anti-even marital sex the Church was. We have to look at how that led to producing these sorts of men. Are they aberrations or are they the result of that sort of upbringing?

mg